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The device manager is a Control Panel applet within Windows operating systems since its introduction with Windows 95. It is used to view and manage all the hardware devices installed on a computer, such as hard drives, sound cards, USB devices, keyboards, and so on.
Techopedia Explains Device Manager
The device manager allows users to:
- Retrieve and install device drivers
- Disable or enable most devices
- Ignore selected devices when/if they malfunction
- View properties for each hardware device, such as manufacturer, model, type of device, etc.
The device manager can also display devices previously installed but not currently present. However, the user must have previously and successfully installed the device, and must type the following at the command prompt:
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
The procedure for accessing the device manager within the Windows OS varies slightly from one OS version to another, but usually involves displaying the Control Panel and then opening a series of menus and dialog boxes.
